The TNA Scouting Report: Rich Swann

by Jason Tolland

Rich Swann

Rich Swann is a name well known by most who follow indie wrestling. He’s known as the happy-go-lucky guy who comes to the ring to the song “All Night Long” in PWG and standing 450’d his way into our hearts. He’s a lovable guy with an arsenal of impressive high flying maneuvers. What’s not too love? Probably the fact that he’s the same age as me and has already accomplished way more with his life…but I digress.

When I first saw Swann in CZW, I wasn’t too impressed. Although his team with Ryan McBride provided some entertaining matches along the way, Swann still had a lot of work to do. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. He was only 19 or 20 at the time. It’s impossible to be perfect at what you do by that age. He still had a very impressive move-set, but the music between the notes, so to speak, weren’t there at all. There was no psychology and Swann never had a character to connect with. He just had some good spots. He provided entertainment in the lower card, but it was impossible at the time to consider him becoming anything more than that. Luckily, he realized this too.

Swann is much improved. Everything he does is crisp and to the point, and though he doesn’t have a well defined character at this point, he’s got past that by improving his all around ring work phenomenally. There are few people in the world today I would much rather watch than him; it’s impossible for him to have a bad match. One talent I would love to see him bring to the ring more is his ability to play the guitar. We’ve seen people use a guitar in wrestling before successfully, especially if you’re blonde and from Memphis. It stands out, especially when you have legitimate talent at playing it.

Maybe this is where he could fit into TNA…

HHH once said that they don’t like to bring up NXT talent without an actual storyline reason behind it. This is an idea I can get behind. TNA (and all wrestling) should take this approach. People like Sam Shaw and Alex Silva failed originally because they had nothing of importance happen with them. There was nothing to connect to and get behind in the long run. They were generic guys and it showed. Silva is no more and it took Shaw a complete repackaging to get on TV again. They need to stop with stuff like this as it rarely, if ever, succeeds. TNA Gut Check was a failure because outside of their contestant’s original little sob stories, there was nothing to get behind them at all. We need less of that and more Shields, Wyatts and MVPs.

This idea may be far fetched, and it legitimately just came to me then as I was writing it, but what if Swann was to debut in TNA as…Jeff Jarrett’s son? That would be something a little different. It would also give him a top storyline immediately. Once MVP (presumably) wins total control of the company at Lockdown, he’s going to need someone to feud with. We’ve already had the nephew of Dixie so how about the previously unknown son of TNA founder Jarrett? I would much rather the guy come to the company with a proper story behind it instead of, “Here’s this new X division talent we’ve hired: Wealthy Goose!”